The bench press is to chest muscle training just like the jeep is to off-road vehicles, it is the premier chest training exercise. In addition to training the chest muscles, the bench press also has a very obvious training effect on the triceps brachii, anterior deltoid muscles, and serratus anterior muscles. There is no need to talk nonsense about the origin and insertion point of the pectoralis major muscle and its contraction function. Baidu. Understanding muscle anatomy allows you to better analyze movements and better feel the force exerted by muscles during training.
The specific operation process of the bench press:
Lie down with the barbell directly above your eyes or directly above the bridge of your nose. no problem. After determining your position on the bench press rack, bring your feet as close to your hips as possible, but the soles of your feet should be firmly planted on the ground and do not stand on tiptoes. Then it is important to keep the feet close to the buttocks to allow the body to form an anti-arch, maintain the neutrality of the spine, and at the same time enhance the tension of the back. Both bodybuilders and powerlifters need to maintain a neutral position to keep their bones in the correct order. If you are a powerlifter, then you need an extreme "bridge" and an extremely shortened distance of the weight-bearing stroke. The legs can actually produce force during the bench press. After one year of training, I began to feel the force produced by the legs during the bench press. It is not unreasonable to say that the legs are the source of any strength.
Then there is a more important point in the bench press: after lying on the bench press frame, you must actively tighten your shoulder blades and sink the shoulder straps. Retract your shoulder blades to the clamp, imagine there is a pen between the shoulder blades, and try to clamp it. Keep the pectoralis major at a relatively high point, otherwise the front deltoid muscle will exert too much force when you bench press, and the force on the chest will become worse, which may even cause a click and impact on the shoulder. Be sure to fully tighten your shoulder blades before grabbing the bar.
Then there is the grip distance. Usually the little finger side is just inside the barbell scale. There are also individuals with long or short hands. Then after tightening the shoulder blades, the upper arm is parallel to the ground and the forearm is perpendicular to the ground. The distance between the parallel lines of the two forearms on the ground is the optimal grip distance for your bench press.
About the grip: I personally recommend a full grip instead of a half grip (open grip). If you are technically proficient, you can use a half-grip for lighter weights, but for heavy weights, you must fully grip it. Safety is second to none! It’s really rare to buckle your wrists during the bench press. There are many people who turn your wrists. Don’t turn your wrists. The wrist joints must remain in a neutral position. But let me emphasize that the neutral position of the wrist is not that the back of the hand and the wrist are in a standard plane, but that the gravity line of the barbell passes through the palm and overlaps the ulna and radius of the forearm. At this time, the back of the palm will turn over to a certain extent. This point is often confused by many novice trainers and novice coaches.
After comparison, it is the force produced by the shot. If the barbell is too heavy, it will be very difficult for one person to lift the bar, so you can also ask someone to help you lift the bar. After the barbell is lifted, the barbell should move to just above the chest and shoulders. Now start to control the muscles eccentrically, lower the barbell, and touch the lower chest (whether or not to touch the chest depends on your shoulder joint mobility, there is no hard standard, just maintain muscle tension) and push up with force from the pectoralis major muscle. The process is consistent and done in one go, and of course don't hurt your chest. Powerlifting must touch the chest and there is an obvious pause before pushing up. This directly eliminates the use of stretch reflex and "chest rebound"!
A very important point here is that when the barbell is at a relatively high point, it is directly above the upper chest and shoulders, and when it falls to a relatively low point, it is at the lower chest position. At this time, the elbows and shoulders The head and head are in varying degrees of "eight-shaped" arrow shapes instead of "one-shaped". Therefore, the movement trajectory of the barbell during bench pressing is arcs of varying degrees, rather than straight up and down. Here are some bench pressing techniques. Coaches who are in place should stop teaching randomly...
Add some breathing. If it is a small weight training, exhale forcefully and return to inhalation. If it is a heavy weight bench press, it is recommended to use "Watt style breathing" ”, the details are discussed in the previous article on squatting.
The bench press is a very naughty movement. This article only gives you a preliminary understanding of it. More details are worth spending a long time to study, practice and ponder!